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Screen conundrum! TOO MANY!!! What would you do?

MovieCutter

MovieCutter

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 3, 2005
3,342
2
Washington, DC
So I recently moved into a beautiful new place, and through a series of fortunate purchases, I've acquired quite the collection of HDTVs and Apple Cinema Displays. Now I work in video, but I actually rarely do any work on my desktop. My Mac Pro is really just "home base" for backup, encoding, and just kind of serving as a supermachine should I need one for gaming or large renders, etc. My Mac Pro has the latest ATI card in it as well so it can drive two MiniDisplay Port ACDs+ a DVI ACD...just in a bit of a quandry (painful I know). So here is the tally:

1x 40" Samsung LED HDTV: This was recently my bedroom TV until it was replaced by a 55" LED Samsung

1x 24" LED Cinema Display: I have this on an Ergotron arm that allows me to turn it into portrait mode and is kind of my trusty secondary

1x27" LED Cinema Display: Just picked this up for $500 on CL, bought two weeks ago, too good of a deal to let anyone else have.

1x30" Cinema Display: Picked this up on CL two weeks ago for $800, barely used and 2 years warranty on it.

So what do I do? I want 2 screens but do I want the 30" for my main screen/gaming and the 40" TV for XBox and watching TV, or do I do the 24"+30" to keep movies/tv shows from my library in the 24" while I "use" the 30", the 27"+24"? 27"+30"? 27"+40"? What combo would you do and why. I'm selling whatever I don't end up keeping for more than I paid for it luckily, so either way, I come out ahead financially. Just curious what people would do with this set up.
 

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Personally, I'd try to get another 24" and sell both the 30" and the 40".

I like screens to match and glossy and matte don't really match. A 24"/27"/24" setup would be beautiful and give should give you sufficient real estate.

The 40" just doesn't seem right on the table.
 
I'd keep the 30" and 24". I like matte for productivity, glossy for viewing (actually I don't like glossy at all, but it does make things look better).
 
27 + 24

I have a 27 at work and I have to turn my head to view the whole thing... 30+ is just to much rubbernecking.

I personally use a 21inch 1080P monitor at home because I believe that pixel density is better than size.

And I think I'm one of the only people are earth that prefers Glossy to matte.
 
Ideal set up would be two 27" ACD's with your Mac Pro. Sell the others and look for a deal on another 27".

It's nice to have a TV in the office, I'd keep the 40" but get it off the desk. Depending on room size if you could move your desk so it's not facing the wall or even pull it back a few feet you could get the TV in a better position.

I'm not one to spend time at my desk either. Sounds like to work on your 17" MBP the most?
 
I have not much to say about the screens, I am not used to external ones.

Yet I would like to ask you how you managed to get such a nice wooden floor. Did you personally select different wood tiles?

PS
Lovely dog :)
 
MovieCutter said:
So I recently moved into a beautiful new place, and through a series of fortunate purchases, I've acquired quite the collection of HDTVs and Apple Cinema Displays. Now I work in video, but I actually rarely do any work on my desktop. My Mac Pro is really just "home base" for backup, encoding, and just kind of serving as a supermachine should I need one for gaming or large renders, etc. My Mac Pro has the latest ATI card in it as well so it can drive two MiniDisplay Port ACDs+ a DVI ACD...just in a bit of a quandry (painful I know). So here is the tally:

1x 40" Samsung LED HDTV: This was recently my bedroom TV until it was replaced by a 55" LED Samsung

1x 24" LED Cinema Display: I have this on an Ergotron arm that allows me to turn it into portrait mode and is kind of my trusty secondary

1x27" LED Cinema Display: Just picked this up for $500 on CL, bought two weeks ago, too good of a deal to let anyone else have.

1x30" Cinema Display: Picked this up on CL two weeks ago for $800, barely used and 2 years warranty on it.

So what do I do? I want 2 screens but do I want the 30" for my main screen/gaming and the 40" TV for XBox and watching TV, or do I do the 24"+30" to keep movies/tv shows from my library in the 24" while I "use" the 30", the 27"+24"? 27"+30"? 27"+40"? What combo would you do and why. I'm selling whatever I don't end up keeping for more than I paid for it luckily, so either way, I come out ahead financially. Just curious what people would do with this set up.
Click to expand...

May I be so bold as to ask what you use for work machine if not this setup? :) Mostly because I envy that setup hehe.
 
To be honest, I'd sell all but the 30" and use the money to buy two more 30" ACDs and a couple of MDP->Dual link DVI adapters so as to have a nice setup with matching monitors and resolutions giving 7680x1600 worth of desktop space. Three screens imo is the best setup (I use 2 x Dell 2007SP 4:3 in portrait mode either side of a 30" ACD).
 
I'd get another 24" and fill in that gap to the right of the chair where the window is. :)
 
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